Instrument foe sharpening slate-pencils



\ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIOE.

G. SIGKELS, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

INSTRUMENT FOR SHARPENING SLATE-PENCILS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 20,219, dated May 11, 1858.

To all 'whom Zt may concern.'

Be it known that I, GERARD SIoKELs, of the city of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement for Pointing Slate and other Pencils; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a front view of a slate with the frame partly in section and showing a longitudinal section of my sharpening instrument which is attached to the edge of the frame. Fig. 2 is an edge view of the slate frame and shows the face of my instrument. Fig. 3 is a face view of the instrument, unattached to the slate. Fig. 4 is a transverse section of the instrument.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

This invention consists in a plate of steel having its transverse section formed with a concave arch for the greater portion of its length, and having float or file-like teeth on its concave arched face, and eyes at its ends to'receive screws or tacks to attach it to the frame of a slate or other foundation which is capable of holding it in a firm condition, while the pencil held at a proper inclination to its face is drawn backward and forward over its face to be cut to a point.

To enable others to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The most convenient method of constructing the instrument is to cut a niece of steel plate of suitable thickness to the desired form by means of a punch which forms the eyes a, a, at the ends, in the same operation, and afterward to bend it to the required concave form between suitable dies, and then with a chisel having a curved edge cut the teeth d, d, on the concave face. It then requires to be hardened and tempered to a proper degree and is ready for attachment to the slate or other foundation of wood. The eyes should be flush with the convex back or else set back a short distance. It may be screwed or tacked to the fiat surface of the slate frame or other foundation, or it may be let into a suitable recess therein so that its edges 0, c, do not project above the surface of the wood or its eyes may be merely sunk in the wood, as shown in Fig. l, leaving the whole of the concave portions e, (see Fig. 4) above the wood.

b, b, are the screws which attach it to the frame.

To point a pencil it is held obliquely to the straight longitu inal surface of the concave, with a suitable degree of pressure, and drawn backward and forward over the teeth, turning it continually during the operation.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The instrument consisting as herein described of a piece of steel with an arched concave surface on which teeth are out, and with eyes at its ends to attach it to the slate frame or other foundation.

GERARD SICKELS.

Witnesses:

JOHN W. CooMBs, J. D, BUGKLEY, 

